Drawn gun carriages



Jan. 25, 1966 o. MELLIGER DRAWN GUN CARRIAGES 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledMarch 2, 1964 Jan. 25, 1966 o. MELLIGER 3,230,829

DRAWN GUN CARRIAGES Filed March 2, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 a P u Q L I\ 94a J L- Jan. 25, 1966 o. MELLIGER 3,230,829

DRAWN GUN CARRIAGES Filed March 2, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 my. a

Jan. 25, 1966 o. MELLIGER DRAWN GUN GARRIAGES 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

Filed March 2, 1964 United States Patent "ice 3,230,829 DRAWN GUNQARRIAGES Oscar Melliger, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor t0Vcrwaltungsgesellschaft der Werltzeugmaschinenfabriir Gerlikon FiledMar. 2, 1964, Ser. No. 348,474 Claims priority, application Switzerland,Mar. 5, 1963, 2,779/63 Claims. (Cl. 89-40) The invention relates to adrawn gun carriage with a trail and an outrigger mounted thereonpivotally about a pivot axis parallel to the wheel axis, on whichoutrigger the hames eye is arranged, and to a method for the operationof such a gun carriage, which is disengaged from the chassis forshooting on certain targets.

In a known gun carriage the outrigger with the hames eye can be swungwith respect to the trail, on which it is pivotally attached, in such amanner that the hames eye assumes any desired level within a limitedrange and under certain assumptions even lies horizontal. Accord inglythe hames eye can then be introduced into the narrow mouths of thecoupling members of various traction vehicles.

In this procedure however an additional turning of the gun carriageabout the wheel axis of the chassis is required, whereby the sameassumes unfavorable inclinations with respect to the soil, so that theground clearance and accordingly the capability of cross countryrunningof the vehicle is diminished.

The invention has the primary object of obviating this disadvantage. Itis another object of the invention to allow guns with very long barrelssuch as anti-aircraft guns to be towed with the gun barrel raised at alarge azimuth angle, so that vehicles following the gun carriage orpersons cannot run against the barrel and particularly against itsmuzzle.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a drawn guncarriage and a method for its operation allowing to leave the guncarriage, which for firing on certain targets such as aerial targets hasto be dismounted from the chassis, on said chassis when firing on othertargets such as terrestrial targets.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent laterfrom this specification and the accompanying drawings, I provide a drawngun carriage comprising in combination: a chassis having wheelsjournalled about a first axis, a trail, an outrigger mounted on saidtrail pivotally about a second axis parallel to said first axis, a hameseye mounted on said outrigger pivotally about a third axis parallel tosaid second axis, and a fixing device detachable in itself and capableof fixing said outrigger and hames eye at will in a desired positionrelative to said trail and releasing the same, respectively. Preferablysaid fixing device comprises a parallelholding device automaticallykeeping said harnes eye parallel to itself regardless of the position ofthe said outrigger, and more particularly a parallel-holding deviceforming with said outrigger a parallelogram guide. Moreover said fixingdevice preferably comprises a coupling fixedly connected on the one handwith said trail and on the other hand with said outrigger.

These and other features of my said invention will be clearly understoodfrom the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof givenby way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a gun carriage in side elevation,

FIG. 2 shows a gun carriage in plan view,

FIG. 3 shows the outrigger with the fixing device in the supportingposition, partly in end elevation and partly in section on the lineIII-III of FIG. 1, on a larger scale than FIGS. 1 and 2,

Patented Jan. 25, 1968 FIG. 4 is a scrap view in the direction of thearrow A of FIG. 3, on a larger scale still,

FIG. 5 is a section on the line VV of FIG. 3 on the scale of MG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a part-development of the serration of FIG. 5 as seen fromoutside, on a larger scale yet.

In the FIGS. 1 and 2 an anti-aircraft and ground combat gun isillustrated in a position ready for being towed, whose gun carriage whenshooting on air targets is uncoupled from the chassis which is formed bya transverse beam 1- and the two wheels 2 having an axis In. Theundercarriage 3, constructed as a tripod having legs 3a, 3b, is mounteddetachably on said chassis, and is anchored by two bolts 4 connectedwith the transverse beam 1 and engaging into the said legs 3a. The uppercarriage 5 is mounted on the undercarriage 3 by means of a pivot 6, andcarries the cradle 7 with the weapon 8. The cradle 7 is braced by theaid of stays 9 on the transverse beam 1 in such a position, that thelong barrel 8a, which in the drawing is shown rather shortened, extendsrearward and upward. In the leg 3b of the undercarriage 3, which isconstructed as a trail pointing forward in the direction of towing, anoutrigger Iii is attached pivotally about a pivot axis 19a.

According to FIG. 3 two eyes 11a and the bearing bush 13 are provided onthe brackets 11 (FIG. 2), which are fixedly connected with this leg 3b.On this bearing bush 13 and these eyes 11a there is mounted a fixingdevice detachable per se, which will be described later in more detailand which retains the outrigger 10 and the hames eye 36 in the desiredposition or releases the same at will. The ends of the bearing bush 13are enlarged flange-like, the outer end faces of these flanges 14 beingprovided, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, over their whole circumference witha radially directed serration 15. In the bore of the bush 13 two bearingbushings 16 are inserted, which abut with their flanged ends 17 theshoulders 18 of the bore, and serve for journalling the bolt 19 havingthe axis 19a and carrying the collar 1%, which upon axial movements ofthe bolt 19 abuts the inner end faces of the bushings 16. Moreover twosleeves 20 are pushed over the bolt 19, on each of which sleeves one ofthe two arms 21 and 22 of the outrigger 10 (FIG. 1) is mounted, theflanges of the sleeves 2t abutting the bottoms of the bores 21b, 22bmachined in the arm bearings 21a and 22a. The inner end faces of the armbearings 21a and 22a have serrations 15a complementary to those on theouter end faces of the flanges 14 and designed for engaging into theserrations 15 thereof, with which they form a coupling, which may beopened and closed by means of a lever 27 as will be describedhereinafter.

Between the bushings 16 and the sleeves 2t compression springs 23 and 24are coiled about the bolt 19. A packet 26 composed of disc springs isheld clamped be tween the bottom of the bore 220 and a nut 25 screwed onone end of the bolt 19. On the other end of the bolt 19, which isenlarged to form a head, the lever 27 is pivotally attached, which isdirected parallel to the arm 21 and whose forked head 27a reaches overthe bolt end 19c, on which it is pivotally mounted by means of a pin 28.The head 27:: of the lever 27, whose two flats 27b and 27c havediflerent distances from the axis 28a of the pivot pin 2%, is forced, bythe tensile force applied by the spring 26 to the bolt 19, against thepressure disc 29, which is pushed over the same and abuts the bottom ofthe recess 21d therein.

As shown in FIG. 3, the hames eye bracket 30 is attached to the two arms21, 22 pivot-ally about a third axis 34a which is parallel to the pivotaxis 19a. This bracket 30 consists substantially of the two bearingbodies 36a, 3912 which interengage T-shape into one another and on eachof which one of the two brackets 31 is attached, which carries an axlebearing 32 each. In the two co-axial bores 33 of the bearing body adirected parallel to the pivot axis 19a the axle bolts 34 are mountedco-axially with the said third axis 34a, the outward ends of which areformed as ball joints 34b and are universally movable in the sockets ofthe arm bearings 21c and 22a (illustrated in FIG. 3 only as regards thearm bearing 22a). The hames eye 36 is mounted on the bracket 30 slidablyand resiliently in a manner not shown in detail, its axis intersectingsaid third axis.

A further component of the fixing device is constituted by the parallelholding device to be described hereinafter, which holds the hames eyeparallel to itself automatically and independently of the position ofthe outrigger, and which forms together with the outrigger aparallelogram guide. In axle bearings 32 a pin 37 is mounted in such amanner, that its axis 37a lies parallel to the pivot axis 19a. Of thetwo ends of the tubular link 38 one is journalled on this pin 37, andthe other on a pin 12, which in turn is inserted in the two eyes 11a ofthe brackets 11. The distance of the axis 12a of this pin 12 from theparallelaxis 37a is equal to the distance of the axis 19a from the axis34a, and likewise the distances between the axis 12a and the axis 19a onthe one hand and between the two axes 37a and 14a on the other hand areequal, the connecting lines of these pairs of axes lying parallel to oneanother, so that the connecting lines of all four axes 19a, 12a, 37a and34a form a parallelogram.

With the underside of the bracket 30 a support plate 39 is connected,whose serrated bottom face lies in a plane, which is substantiallyparallel to the longitudinal axis of the hames eye 36 and which in thesupporting position of the outrigger (FIG. 1) supports the gun carriageremaining on the chassis 1, 2 additionally on said chassis when firingon targets other than aerial targets.

The manner of operation of the device described follows from itsconstruction:

In the normal engagement position indicated in FIG. 1 in full lines theoutrigger 10 serves as a draw bar, which can be attached to a tractionvehicle by means of the hames eye 36. In FIG. 1 the outrigger 10 formedby the arms 21 and 22 and the link 38 is also shown in dotted lines inthe supporting position. This position is to be adjusted to for example,when the gun is used for engaging ground targets. In this case the guncarriage is left on the chassis, and the outrigger is brought into thesupport position and fixed in this position together with the hames eye,which has been brought into a position parallel to the position forengagement on the traction vehicle.

For making the transition of the outrigger 10 from one position into theother, the fixing device is firstly released by turning the lever 27about the axis 28a from the position shown in full lines in FIG. 3 intothe position indicated in chain-dotted lines. The strongly preloadedspring 26 can accordingly expand and pull the bolt 19 to one another,and the outrigger 10 can be turned about the pivot axis 19a into thedesired position; subsequently, by turning back the lever 27 the loadingof the springs 26, 23 and 24 and the re-engagement of the serrations,and accordingly the locking of the outrigger 10 can be effected, wherebythe fixing device is tightened again. By the link 38, which forms alsothe parallel-holding means of the parallelogram linkage comprising theoutrigger 10, the hames eye 36 is guided into and retained in a positioncorresponding to that of the outrigger, so that its position alwaysremains parallel to the engagement position illustrated in FIG. I. Thehames eye 36 consequently remains always in the" same substantiallyhorizontal position most favorable for the coupling of the gun to atraction vehicle, in all the various angular positions of the outriggerrelative to the gun carriage.

The tensile forces introduced by the hames eye are transmitted, owing tothe particular arrangement thereof, exclusively through the outriggerarms 21, 22, which makes it possible to build the link 38 comparativelylight and weak.

While I have described herein and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings what may be considered a typical and particularly usefulembodiment of my said invention, I wish it to be understood, that I donot limit myself to the particular details and dimensions described andillustrated; for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled inthe art.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letter Patent, is:

1. A drawn gun carriage comprising in combination: a chassis havingwheels journalled about a first axis, a gun proper with a trail fixeddismountable to said chassis, an

. third axis and carrying said hames eye, said hames eye the right handside in FIG. 3, until the collar 1% abuts formed by the ball joints 34b.Thereby the serrations provided on the flanges 14 of the bearing bushes13 and on the arm bearings 21a and 22a are disengaged from bracketadditionally supporting said gun proper on said chassis in thesupporting position of said outrigger when firing with said gun propermounted on said chassis.

3. A drawn guncarriage as claimed in claim 1, wherein said fixing devicecomprises a parallel-holding device automatically holding said hames eyeparallel to itself independently of the position of said outrigger.

4. A drawn gun carriage as claimed in claim 3, wherein saidparallel-holding device together with said outrigger forms aparallelogram guide.

5. A drawn gun carriage as claimed in claim 4, wherein said fixingdevice, in addition to said parallel-holding device, comprises acoupling and a hand lever operatively connected with said coupling, saidcoupling having one part fixedly connected with said trail and anotherpart fixedly connected with said outrigger.

No references cited.

BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner.

FRED c, MATTERN, 111., Examiner.

1. A DRAWN GUN CARRIAGE COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: A CHASSIS HAVINGWHEELS JOURNALLED ABOUT A FIRST AXIS, A GUN PROPER WITH A TRIAL FIXEDDISMOUNTABLE TO SAID CHASSIS, AN OUTRIGGER MOUNTED ON SAID TRAILPIVOTALLY ABOUT A SECOND AXIS PARALLEL TO SAID FIRST AXIS, A HAMES EYEMOUNTED ON SAID OUTRIGGER PIVOTALLY ABOUT A THIRD AXIS PARALLEL TO SAIDSECOND AXIS, AND A FIXING DEVICE DETACHABLE IN ITSELF AND CAPABLE OFFIXING SAID OUTRIGGER AND HAMES EYE AT WILL IN A DESIRED POSITIONRELATIVE TO SAID TRAIL AND RELEASING THE SAME, RESPECTIVELY.